A PLUCKY North-East civil completed a jungle charity trek with a foot injury which has become the curse of English footballers.

Despite fracturing her left foot halfway through the 50-mile trek in northern Thailand, Lin Houston insisted on finishing the challenge to raise money for international children's charity Plan UK.

The 50-year-old, from Darlington, broke her metatarsal after falling over on a night time call of nature.

It was the same injury that almost put former England captain David Beckham out of the 2002 football World Cup and striker Wayne Rooney out of last year's event.

Ms Houston said: "I'd really like to be able to say I broke it doing something heroic but the truth is I just tripped over.

"We were staying in bamboo huts built on stilts and you had to walk down a plank to get to the ground.

"In the middle of the night I had to go to the toilet. It was pitch black and I fell. I had no idea I'd broken it."

Her foot was swollen and bruised the next day and the doctor leading the trek suspected she had broken it.

But bruised and unbowed, Ms Houston was determined to complete the experience with her eight fellow trekkers.

She completed the penultimate day's stage on the back of a motorbike, but remarkably, finished the last day's walk on foot, covering a distance of about four miles with the aid of heavy strapping and sturdy walking boots.

She was then taken to hospital in Chiang Mai where the broken bone was confirmed before being flown home and put in a cast at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

The Child Support Agency worker, of Harrowgate Farm, sponsors a 10-year-old girl called Balkissa in Burkina Faso with Plan and signed up for the trek after celebrating her 50th birthday in January.

"I wanted to challenge myself and prove that you can be fit at 50," she said.

"People have said, 'that's absolutely amazing'. I haven't really thought of it like that because I was so determined I was going to do this trek.

"I had been sponsored and although I would have still got the money from most people, I couldn't have come back and said I couldn't do it."

She added that walking on her foot had been "uncomfortable rather than agony."

Her efforts have raised £3,500 for Plan's work in supporting primary schools in remote northern Thailand.

Ms Houston said: "The charity help communities to help themselves so they are self-sufficient. You know where your money is going."

To sponsor Ms Houston, log on to www.justgiving.com/linhouston. For more information on sponsoring a child with Plan, visit www.plan-uk.org.